Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) is one of the most famous fabulists of all times. Today his work is associated with children literature, but, just like in many other cases, kids were never his target group. If we read his Fables today, this is still obvious. With so many nuances and overtones, they are way too sophisticated to be classified as children literature. Many of them are actually not appropriate for the young audience because they are dealing with too challenging topics. By the way, many are formally even not fables, but epistles, elegies, and other poetic forms. Apart from that, La Fontaine’s intention was never merely a didactic message. They can be also understood as author’s reflections and ironic comments of human characters.
Shall we have a look at few facts about Jean de La Fontaine’s life and work?
1. He was born into a wealthy family. His father arranged him a rich bride and well-paid job, but La Fontaine’s was spending too much and too fast, so he could not keep the job and was separated from his wife, although they remained in contact.
2. Jean was very talented when he needed any kind of sponsorship. He spent most of his life as a guest in different houses of nobility, where he had everything for comfortable living and in return he gave not much more than his charm and some poetry. He had, for instance, a deal with Minister of Finance to have a roof over his head, food on the table and nice allowance on condition he writes at least one poem every three months.
3. None of his Fables is original. He wrote them in several sets, first six with a dedication to king’s son, next to the king’s mistress and last to the king’s grandson. Earlier were rewritings of Aesop’s fables and later we can find many rewritings of oriental fables. Among his resources, we can find Ariosto, Boccaccio, Horace, Machiavelli, Rabelais, and others.
4. Before the Fables he wrote and published Contes (Tales and Novels in Verse), which can rather be classified as experiments in verse and style than classic poetry. They were very popular, but the majority of these comedies with themes mostly borrowed from Italian writers (Boccaccio again) were considered as immoral and thanks to their notoriety (not the only, but probably most important reason) he lost two elections to French Academy before he was finally accepted.
5. Apart from Fables and Tales La Fontaine wrote many poetical and theatrical works but critics agree they are not nearly as good ad his both major projects. The only exception is probably a novel The Loves of Cupid and Psyche. Well, let’s leave something for some other occasion.
Edmund Evans
Edmund Evans (1826-1905) was probably the most important printer in the history of picture books. As a kid, he showed a lot of talent for drawing and dropped school at 14 years to become an apprentice at well established and influential Ebenezer Landells.
When he started on his own, he soon got commissions from newspapers, but it was pretty clear his skill and especially a good sense for details would be in much better use in books with longer ‘expiration date’.
Evans improved existing printing technique of chromoxylography, but his major contribution to the development of the market with picture books was probably his cooperation with leading artists from the fields of painting and illustration. He wasn’t only printer and engraver, he also worked as publisher and promoter.
I’ll mention only the most important illustrators working with Edmund Evans which are, incidentally the most successful illustrators of the era in Great Britain:
1. Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899) was his close friend and after Evans married his niece his relative as well. They were working together at Landells and traveled around making sketches and improving their drawing technique.
The picture above is from the first important book by Evans. It’s titled The Poems of Oliver Goldsmith and it was published in 1859. Birket Foster made drawings on wooden blocks and Evans did the printing with very same paintings.
2. Walter Crane (1845-1915) was one of the first illustrators who understood the importance of design and his vignettes are still a must-see for every inspiring visual artist. Evans soon realized his talent and with him, he started a series of relatively cheap but quality picture books which became very popular.
They made about 50 books together before their professional paths split because Crane was more interested in pure art and socialist political movement, while Evans was more into business. This is one of finest examples of their cooperation:
3. Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) was the first choice when it was clear the cooperation with Crane was approaching the end. They initially agreed on two books for Christmas season 1878 and both were a huge commercial success.
Caldecott was able to choose next projects which were in most cases rhymes for children and he illustrated two books per year for Evans until he died. His Nursery Rhymes in twelve books were sold in more than 800 thousand copies in less than six years!
4. Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was a kind of backup for Caldecott because Evans already had enough work to commission his projects to other printers. Her style was very well received by the audience and they were just perfect for each other.
Evans was a skilled businessman and Greenaway created sentimental pictures which were in very high demand. Evans was also able to reproduce her style in unprecedented quality, so their success was no surprise.
First project Under the Window (book of rhymes which she also wrote) tested the market, in best possible way - it was sold out in a few weeks and achieved more than one hundred thousand sold copies in her lifetime.
5. I would like to mention one more illustrator: Richard Doyle (1824-1883). He didn’t work so much with Evans for several reasons and illustrator’s own approach to the illustration (he was a chronic procrastinator) was certainly one of them. They, however, created one of the masterpieces of Victorian art where fantasy creatures, Doyle’s favorite subject, met Evans’ knowledge. It was published in 1870 and wasn’t successful in the market because the price was set too high. But we can still enjoy it, right?
I hope you learned more about Edmund Evans, the man, who definitely made one of the the biggest impacts on children’s picture books in history.
Albrecht Durer
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)
Albrecht Durer was the most important Northern Renaissance (cultural movement of Renaissance occurring North of Alps, while original Renaissance started in Italy) artist. He was a painter, an engraver, a printer, and a woodcutter. Most people are familiar with at least some of his works, although they can’t attribute them properly. Next painting, for instance, is only one of his works and it is worth about one hundred millions of euros.
To improve the overall level of education in the field of art I decided to provide few of the most interesting facts about Albrecht Durer, his life, and works:
1. His was of Hungarian origin. His family name was Thurer (with an umlaut on u).
2. He was born as the third child in a numerous family of fourteen or even eighteen (we don’t have clear evidence) in Nuremberg, one of the largest and technologically advanced cities in the Holy Roman Empire. He had a brother named Hans, who became a famous artist too.
3. His father (named Albrecht as well) father was a goldsmith. Together with Michael Wolgemut, he was young Albrecht’s first teacher.
4. Most of the historical works mention his travel to Italy in 1495 as the turning point in his career. Latest discoveries show he made only to the border and he learned about Renaissance from copies of Italian masters which were already available in Nuremberg. He had probably left the city because of the plague.
5. Albrecht Durer was known for his attention to the details. His picture of rhinoceros (woodcut) was used in school textbooks in Germany until 1939.
6. Durer designed one of the first logos in history. His initials AD (seen under the title of the picture above) can be considered as the beginning of branding and copyright.
7. He is considered as the first author of self-portrait. He made at thirteen years of age to show his skills and he did it in one of the most demanding techniques, in silverpoint drawing technique:
He made several self-portraits before he died. He used a mirror (these became much more affordable in his lifetime) and in some cases very showy materials, including extremely expensive pigments as crimson red, lapis lazuli and golden powder. He never sold any of them, but they were successfully used as examples to attract customers. Durer had many rich customers and became internationally known way before the end of his life.
But his most famous work today is not a painting, it is engraving with enigmatic title Melencolia I. This engraving is a portrait of an angel among many mathematical and mystical symbols. It has been a subject of numerous interpretations and speculations but the majority of experts now explain it as a kind of symbolical self-portrait.
8. Albrecht Durer wrote several books about art and anatomy which he obsessively studied for many years.
9. He invented many tools to produce more realistic effects on works. For instance, he made a brush of guinea pig hair for finest details as flower petals of human curls.
10. His private life is a bit of a mystery. It is known he was a frequent visitor to brothels before and probably after marriage. He was the first who painted naked prostitute and detailed picture of a scrotum. Now historians believe he died of syphilis, not from malaria which was next to impossible to contract during winter when his problems with health first occurred. We’ll probably never know the complete truth about Albrecht Durer, but these facts should be enough for now.
Frederic Chopin
Frederic Chopin (1810-1839)
This famous romantic composer and a superb piano player is of course widely known by is music, but I decided to choose few interesting facts from his personal life to present him in a different light. He was born in 1810 in February or March (documents disagree on this fact) and he died of tuberculosis (as so many great artists in the past) in 1839. He is buried in Pere Lachaise, the most famous cemetery in the world:
1. He was a child prodigy. His father played violin and flute and mother was a piano teacher, so music was in his genes. He started writing poetry and composing at the age of six. His first public performance was at eight.
Frederic Chopin - Nocturne Op 55 No. 1 (hard)
2. He was of Polish origin (Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin was his real name) but moved to Paris when he was 20 years old and stayed there for most of his life.
3. Chopin never liked public performances, so he earned the most money by giving piano lessons to rich pupils. When they were paying him, he was too embarrassed to look at them.
4. Majority of his compositions are written for piano. Some pianists say they are made with an intention to emphasize his superb playing technique and can be really painful to perform.
5. He was engaged to Maria Wodzinski but canceled marriage due to bad health. After that, he met Georges Sand (real name: Aurore Dudevant) and got on and off going relationship with her for about ten years until he died. There was another important woman in his life although it is hard to tell if he ever returned her love. Her name was Jenny Lind, probably most popular singer of her time, who was called a Swedish Nightingale. She was an inspiration to at least three fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.
Some of Chopin’s most famous pieces are available here:
https://musopen.org/music/search/?q=chopin
They are free to download and listen, but you need to register. Enjoy!
Giovanni Boccaccio
Facts about Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375)
1. He was an illegitimate son of Florentine Boccaccio di Chellino di Buonaiuto and an unknown lady from France. His father deserted the lady but took care of the son.
2. Birthplace of Giovanni Boccaccio is unknown too. It could be somewhere near Florence, where he spent his early years, or maybe even in Paris where his real mother probably resided.
3. His father wanted to introduce him to banking business or at least make him a merchant, but he persuaded him to enroll him in a school for lawyers.
4. Giovanni studied law for six years. While he didn’t like that profession either, he made many valuable connections and spent many years in different public positions.
5. Boccaccio’s true call was poetry. He also wrote prose, he translated works from Aristotle and Homer and signed several biographies.
6. He lived in times of plague and left Florence and Naples due to the epidemic at least once. This situation (as many other biographic moments) can be recognized in several of his works, especially in Decameron.
7. Decameron is most known work by Boccaccio and it is one of the most influential literary works in history.
8. Frame story about three men and seven women telling stories to each other inspired thousands of artists all over the world. One of Boccaccio’s specialties was his usage of dialogues. They are witty, lively and much more realistic than dialogues of his contemporaries.
9. Boccaccio is today considered as one of three most important writers in the 14th century when literature was probably revolutionized as much as with the invention of printing. Other two are Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) also known as Petrarch.
10. Boccaccio spent his last years of life in poor health with weak hearth and other problems. His complete works are in the monastery of Santo Spirito, Florence, Italy.
One of illustrated English translations of Decameron which is in Public Domain is available at https://archive.org/details/decameron01boccuoft.
What is Art?
We tend to look for simple, no more than one line long definition of art, but this in most cases produce rather disappointing results. It seems elusiveness is on major attributes of the art which can be quite paradoxical.
On one hand it ‘works’ only as media. This means it transfers thoughts, emotions, expressions of the artist to the audience. If nobody, with exemption of the artist, sees, hears, feels it, is it still art?
On the other hand it is very personal. There should be no two persons (artist is included) in the whole Universe sharing exactly the same experience with the same piece of art.
On one hand, thanks to its already mentioned uniqueness, art is always priceless. Art is not made for money. When money is involved, we always move from A to B, from Art to Business, from uncompromising to optimal, from idealistic to profitable.
On the other hand artist have to eat too. Definition of value in art can be tricky but if you intend to spend 250 million dollars for Cezanne’s painting, you should know what you are doing.
At least until they make enough material to be sold when they die. Because dead artist’s works are in most cases much more expensive than works of the same artist while he was still alive.
Talking about death – art is one of the most popular ways to achieve immortality.
So forget the definitions and enjoy art which is old as humanity but only in recent centuries separated from science or craft or skill.
This blog will talk about art and artists. It will provide some fascinating facts and hopefully provoking thoughts. I guess this is art too:)
